LG Display shuts down LCD plants to focus on OLED

Nov 23, 2017: LG Display’s quarterly report that included the status of its Fab P3, P4, and P5, indicate that the company plans not to invest in its LCD plants. Fab P4 in Gumi (a Gen. 5 LCD panel fab) was officially shut down in October 2017. Gen. 3.5 Fab P2 has already shut down, and Gen. 4 Fab P3 will be closed by the end of 2017. Fab 5 is the only one that will remain to produce LCD panels of Gen. 5 and below.

In July 2017, Vice Chairman of LG Display, Sang-Beom Han, had announced that by the end of 2017, LCD panel Fab P2, P3, and P4 in Gumi would be shut down.

Industry insiders believe that LG wants to now invest more in its OLED projects to stay ahead in the market. The company plans to invest 20 trillion Korean Won in OLED production by the end of 2020, which will later be implemented in Fab P10 and E6 located at Paju, Fab E5 in Gumi, and another fab in Quangzhou, China.

With a shortage of supply of OLED equipment in the market, companies are concentrating on expanding their production capacity. LG Display has also started to order extra OLED equipment, to expand mid-and-small-size OLED panel capacity. Accordin g to estimates, LG Display’s investment in OLED equipment in 2018 will reach 8.5 trillion Korean Won, up 21.4% YoY. The Korean giant aims to raise mid-and-small-size OLED panels’ capacity to 37,500 units per month.

LG has also plans to increase capacity of OLED panel for TV in 2018. Its figure might at most grow 60% than the estimated capacity in 2017. The company’s capacity of OLED panel for TV is predicted to come to 1.7 million units in 2017. The firm plans to expand the capacity to 2.5-2.8 million units in 2018, said Nikkei news on November 15. Currently, it supplies OLED TV panel to 13 enterprises, including Sony and Panasonic.